Gas turbine engines can be used as a primary power source to power aircraft, watercraft, and other types of vehicles, as well as power generators and the like. For example, aerospace applications of gas turbine engines include turboshaft, turboprop, and turbofan engines. Gas turbine engines typically include one or more compressors, a combustor, and one or more turbines. In typical aerospace applications, a fan or propeller is used to provide the majority of the engine thrust and is located in front of the core engine. The compressor, in which inlet air is compressed, includes alternating stages of rotating blades and static vanes, which increase the pressure of the air as it travels through the gas turbine core.
The compressor outputs higher-pressure air, which it delivers to the combustor, wherein fuel is combusted with the compressed air. As a result, exhaust gas is generated and directed to the one or more turbines, wherein the exhaust gas can be used to rotate one or more rotating disks with blades integrally attached. In typical aerospace applications, the gas turbine engine provides thrust to propel the aircraft, and also supplies power for accessories of the engine and/or the aircraft. Accordingly, such integrally bladed rotors, or blisks (i.e., bladed disks), can additionally and/or alternatively be used for other components of the gas turbine engines, such as compressors, fan blade rotors, etc.
Each blisk consists of a single element combining both a rotor disk and blades, as opposed to a disk and a plurality of individual, removable blades. Typically, during operation of turbofan engines, vibration, such as harmonic vibration from the blades of the blisk, is introduced. Such vibration may introduce engine wear, thereby reducing engine life. Accordingly, such blisks are generally required to undergo harmonic vibration testing. Conventional technologies to mitigate the vibrations include damping rings, which may be used on blisks of turbofan engines, to reduce or otherwise dampen such vibration when relative motion exists on the disk rim and the damping ring, for example.